CALLED TO SERVE

Hello friends! :) I am currently serving as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Nebraska Omaha Mission. I'll be emailing home every week for the 18 months that I'm in the Cornhusker state; my amazing mom will be the one posting them on this here blog. Interested in church history? Come on down to the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters and I might just be there to give you a tour!

"As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Monday, April 24, 2017

This week went by so fast! It's already been a week since we met our awesome new investigator Sam! Last Monday when we got to Walmart we saw a guy who looked YSA sitting by himself on a bench. We went up and talked with him a little about what our purpose is and invited him to FHE that night. He ended up coming and we had a lesson with him afterwards! Then he went and got ice cream with some people from the ward. It was so happy! He came to institute on Wednesday too. We were a little nervous because it was a confusing topic, but he said he enjoyed it! I don't know which is best: the fact that he has so much free time since he's not working and only takes online classes, or him being in Colorado this weekend and still going to church for the first time! Heavenly Father really answered our prayers with him because it seems like none of our other investigators have time for us, and it's been really hard to reach them. Now we can focus most of our time and energy on Sam!

On P-day we also went over to Brookelyn's and made smoothies with her. It was a party. :)

We were able to see David briefly last night! He says even though he's busy he doesn't want us to give up on him. He's seen a huge positive difference in his life since he decided to give Jesus Christ more priority in his life. He even wants us to teach some of his friends! The church is true.

Something inspiring I've learned this week was repeated by a lot of people in different settings. It's the idea of reducing and simplifying. I'm the type of person that loves being busy and I love to-do lists. The problem is, sometimes with people like me we can spend time on things that aren't important - and it distracts from other things that are more important. When overwhelmed with an endless agenda, you might have to ask yourself: "Does it show my love for God?" That one question can help regardless of the situation. Just a thought. :)

Sunday, April 23, 2017

This week was eggcellent. Allie went to church last week for the first time!!!! She said she loved it a lot. I am so so happy for her and have "seen" her grow so much from phone calls and texting back and forth on teaching center over the course of a few months. She was able to meet the sister missionaries there in Colorado. It was bittersweet emailing them her teaching record, but I know that they're the ones that will help her progress the most!

YSAs are EVERYWHERE. In parking lots by the UNO campus and outside our apartment! There's even a cute YSA girl who lives two floors above us, so we're going to try and see her some day this week.

We also got another referral for a guy, Tika, who speaks French. Our French extraordinaire Spencer is actually currently out of town in France with his parents for a few weeks, so we had to fend for ourselves. We knew we couldn't have a lesson with him, but before we went to drop off his Livre de Mormon I was able to write him a decent length of a text explaining to him what was happening! I definitely know it was the Spirit that helped me dig out the words and conjugations in the corner of my brain from French class 4 years ago! I am so grateful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost that we are all promised after baptism through the proper authority of God. :)

Another cool miracle this week was meeting a lady named Donna who let us teach her the Restoration in her front yard! She lived across the street to a house we said we weren't going to try again (for the 4th time I think?) but now we know why we did. The weather was so nice that day; she brought out blankets for us to sit on and we had a great lesson. She was so interested and sincere! We were able to pass her off to a pair of missionaries for a family ward.

Easter Sunday was awesome! Our investigator John was able to come for all three hours, which is great because he's been MIA lately with his crazy work schedule. He said he loved it, could feel the Spirit the most with the hymns, and it was worth it to come. Sacrament meeting was cool, because Bishop Biggs just called on a bunch of people to share how they had seen the Lord's hand in their life. Then he also shared his testimony. I think that's one of the few times I've ever cried during church because of the Spirit. The mission just gets to ya! Later that day, we were invited by Brother Washington and the Rockbrook sisters to have dinner with them and a few others. Brother Washington is so sweet and loves the missionaries; he gave us all Easter baskets and ham to take home! Then the trio headed to Sami's with some other YSAs and her nonmember friend Emily for dessert and a mean game of "hit the hard boiled egg with a hockey stick" in the park. It was a blast.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Guess who's in another trio??? Yours truly! Sister Janson and I are now with Sister Svensson, from Sweden! She is so awesome, and the best thing is....we are dying together! It's so funny because we joke about it all the time that Sister Janson is kicking us both out. Fun fact, Sister Svensson's friend in the Minnesota Minneapolis is companions with Julia Ward! Small world. :)

The Papillion stake conference was this weekend. There were so many great talks on listening to the Spirit, making scripture studies the most efficient, and blessings of the temple! The most exciting news of all: Walnut Creek Branch is now Walnut Creek Ward! Ahh! My mission dream has come true and my baby area is growing! I squealed and almost jumped out of my seat when they announced it. I got to talk with a lot of old friends who feel like family now. It turns out that Bailey who has been going to school in Lincoln, comes back on the weekends. We got her number from Sister Snyder and we are going to set up a time to meet with her soon.

I am so excited for Easter! There's a different video on how to find peace through the Prince of Peace for every day this week at Mormon.org. I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to end by sharing a scripture from The Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 16:6-9

And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.

And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

Love,

Sister Irwin

P.S.

1. Trio life!!!

2. The Henry's granddaughters came to visit (they're older sister is serving at the Washington DC visitor center)

Thursday, April 6, 2017

If you didn't get the title of this email, it's the number of full time missionaries in 2016!

Anyways, this week was so good! I feel like so many things happen so I'll try to sum them all up. On Tuesday we had a hand off lesson from the Elmwood sisters for their investigator Johnathon. He's Buddhist but has an interested in learning more about Jesus Christ!

Wednesday was a jam-packed day of miracles! It rained the whole day outside but the sun was still shining in our eyes! Somehow we had three back to back lessons and timing and team ups and everything worked perfectly. Mason brought David to the trail center for a tour. It was so good. He hasn't had coffee for four days! Instead, he takes cold showers to help him wake up in the mornings. Ahh he is progressing! :) Also, we found out that his mom is actually a less active member of the church! After David left, we weren't sure if Dave was still going to come, so we said a prayer with some other sisters, and he called not even 10 minutes later! We gave him a tour as well, and it was good that no one else came because he really opened up to us and we were able to find out his needs. We showed him #princeofpeace and he really really wants to believe that it's all true. He's still praying and reading his scriptures to come to know for himself that there is a God. I'd love and appreciate it if everyone could pray for him to have his heart softened that he may be able to recognize the Spirit witness to him that Heavenly Father is there and that his prayers are answered.

Oh my goodness Allie! We were able to have another lesson over the phone with my online investigator and she is doing fantastic!! She still hasn't been able to go to church, but she says she watches conference talks, reads more in her scriptures, and her friend tells her what they studied in church for them to discuss it. She is on fire!

Other exciting news from this week:

Sister Church was in town for a training and came and visited!! She's been in Kearney the past few transfers. Sister Janson and I attended a baptism for a guy named Danny on Saturday. He'll be moving into our ward! Then we went out to eat with some of the girls that were also there.

Conference was so good!! We watched all of the sessions at the trail center, except for Sunday afternoon we went over to Alyssa's and Ellen's. The Elmwood sisters have ANOTHER referral for us and they brought her there. She's super nice but I can't remember her name! It's really hard to pronounce. I love love love hearing from our prophet/apostles/other leaders. As a missionary it's even better than Christmas! Some of my favorite messages:

2. District picture with President - Elder Grey "feasts" on the words of Christ very literally...

3. Trio forever - side note. Sister Parsons is going home and I'm going to miss her so so much but we are so proud of our son. ♥

4. Goodbye Nelsons :( - other side note. These are two of the strongest people I know. They had a tragic accident in their family last summer and ended up losing their daughter and granddaughter. They didn't have to come back out on their mission, but they did because they're committed to serving the Lord.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

I don't have a ton of stuff to talk about; this week really flew by! Sister Janson and I had two awesome tours the same day with the Negleys and Sister Holmstead. They were all members, and were just super spiritual and encouraging. Things are picking up because of Spring break. We love when nonmembers come to the trail center, but we also love our sweet members! :) Both mentioned how this decision to serve will bless us and our families for the rest of our lives. The Negleys just got back a few months ago from a mission, and Sister Holmstead currently has a daughter out on hers.

Saturday was jammed pack with exciting things! We overbooked ourselves and had two lessons planned for 4:00pm and needed to go on splits. David ended up canceling (we got to see him last night anyway) but we still got members to come and thought it would be fun! Hannah went with Sister Janson to go try some potential investigators, and Alyssa, Elizabeth, and Dustin came with me to see Boris' cousin Lucas! (The ratio for gender always needs to be at least 3 of us if there's a single guy and then we brought our own guy so they could be friends.) It was kind of crazy but they're all RMs so we just took turns teaching! Lucas is interested, he just doesn't understand the priesthood super well yet, but there is hope!

That night we watched women's conference downstairs at the trail center with most of the other sisters. Everyone brought cookies to share! It made conference even sweeter. I'm super pumped for this weekend as well. I'm so grateful we get to listen to the prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the church. It's as if God himself is speaking to us! It's going to be great! #ldsconf

Also...the new Easter initiative starts the end of March!! Get ready for it. #princeofpeace